A Few Notes On City

- Manchester City decided to do an NBA style, lights out presentation with a Blue Moon over their fans. Incredibly silly stuff. Imagine being an Arsenal player and having to stand there to watch that.

- Adebayor made a big show of hugging all of our players, planting a kiss on Silvestre, and attempting to kiss Eboue. It was embarrassing to witness, but he did relatively little during the actual match. Perhaps it's better to just treat him with indifference than pure disgust.

- Fabianski played well. He was not responsible for any of the goals, and he had a few fine reaction saves.

- Song was culpable for both the first and third goals. Silvestre was to blame for the second. Silvestre is way past his best. I do not feel safe at all when he's in the game, and I've given him more of a chance than most other Arsenal fans. While it's nice that we can count on Song as a backup CB, I'd rather we played Bartley instead of him. Song picked up a yellow card which means he's suspended for the Stoke fixture. That's actually a convenient ban, considering we may not require his services to beat Stoke. Regardless, if we were going to blood the youngsters, I would have preferred to see Bartley.

- We were not protected by the ref. There were several clear fouls that were not called, and we were shown six yellow cards.

- The fact that we could not create a clear cut chance against a City side that lacked balance and was set up to attack was a bit worrying. Wilshere and Merida did not provide a whole lot. Rosicky faded. Ramsey was industrious but not effective. Vela didn't get much service.

- Arsene Wenger did not shake Mark Hughes' hand because he thinks that Hughes is a c*nt. We've lost games before by large margins, and Wenger still shook the hands of opposing managers. Hughes is quickly becoming a major annoyance that must be vanquished much like Sam Allardyce was.

- An away fixture was always going to be difficult for our blend of youth and reserve players. Look back on the past few years and you'll see it's the away fixture that does us in this tournament.

- People will write about this exit as if it's something important. Chelsea have also exited the tournament, but not much doom is forecast on them, and they played Drogba. The Stoke fixture is far, far more important than advancing to the semis of the Carling Cup. Winning a Carling Cup would be a noteworthy achievement, but it would not alleviate the stings of criticism that people give us. They'll just say, "well all they've won is a Carling Cup."

- Stoke is a must win fixture.